Fordyce, frowning with anxiety at the
process, was offering assistance, while we had much rather he had
gone out of the way; when suddenly, in the gallery round the hall
giving access to the bedrooms, there dawned upon us the startled but
scarcely displeased figure of Jenny Wren in her white dress, not
turning aside that blushing face, while Cock Robin was clasping her
hand and pressing it to his lips. The tap of my crutches warned
them. She flew back within her door and shut it; Griff strode
rapidly on, caught hold of her father's hand, exclaiming, 'Sir, sir,
I must speak to you!' and dragged him back into the mullion room
leaving Clarence and me to convey ourselves downstairs as best we
might.
'Our sister, our sweet sister!'
We were immensely excited. All the three of us were so far in love
with Ellen Fordyce that her presence was an enchantment to us, and
at any rate none of us ever saw the woman we could compare to her;
and as we both felt ourselves disqualified in different ways from
any nearer approach, we were content to bask in the reflected rays
of our brother's happiness.
Not that he had gone that length as yet, as we knew before the night
was over, when he came down to us. Even with the dear maiden
herself, he had only made sure that she was not averse, and that
merely by her eyes and lips; and he had extracted nothing from her
father but that they were both very young, a great deal too young,
and had no business to think of such things yet.
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